To focus on now of course is a trade deal with the uk and so i have joined a number of other senators and asking you can watch this online at cspan. Org. The senate gaveling in at 3 30 p. M. And they will take a procedural vote on a couple of abortion measures. Live coverage now of the u. S. Senate. 18. The presiding officer under the previous order, the time until 3 30 p. M. Will be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. The senator from alaska. Ms. Murkowski madam president , just very briefly here this afternoon, we will have beginning at 3 30 p. M. A series of votes to include the nomination of Katherine Macgregor to be deputy secretary of the department of interior, and i would like to provide my support for this nomination. I want to thank my colleagues on the energy and Natural Resources committee for working with me to report and rereport ms. Macgregors nomination moved out on a bipartisan basis. I thank the majority leader for filing cloture on her nominat
We break away from this portion of washington journal to fill our longtime commitment to bring you live Senate Coverage. Follow this at cspan. Org, senate gasoline and next coming up shortly. Senator Tammy Baldwin will deliver the annual reading of washingtons farewell address. After that the senate will debate the nomination of Robert Malloy to be a district judge for the Virgin Islands with the vote to limit debate on the nomination is scheduled for later this afternoon. Live Senate Coverage is here on cspan2. The chaplain let us pray. Eternal god, the center of our joy, make us your captives so that we may live liberated lives. Provide our senators with the spiritual, mental, social and physical revitalization they need just for today. May they place their trust in you and experience your profound peace. Grant that they will relinquish their worries to you, as they permit your perfect love to cast out every fear. Lord, show them your redemptive purposes in every problem they must so
And its been a while since we didnt have any the irs is going to become increasingly dysfunctional in terms of its basic mission. And my concern is not what do we collect with our own efforts, my concern is at some point the voluntary Tax Compliance system begins to erode. And thats not an on off switch. And you cant wake up one day and say, wow, i didnt know that was going to happen, heres some more money. So part of the reason im so serious about this is that people need to understand the fiveyear implications and ramifications of where were headed. And as ive said in other contexts, i dont want anybody to say we didnt warn you. So you should treat this as your warning that this is a real problem, and its a serious problem, and were beyond the simplicity of saying well, well cut your budget and youll be more efficient. Or well make sure you know what youre doing, you know . Cut our budget again and i know what were going to do. Were going to have fewer people, well have technology th
Work. That leaves us with enforcement Taxpayer Services and i. Tchl. So when you take a cut, weve done the best we can to try to balance that. And our appripriations come in those buktds, so to come extent, were constrained by where the proepuaters put the funding. We have probably 3,000 fewer people answering phone calls right now than we used to have to go along with the 5,000 fewer enforcement people and the 5,000 we put into Identity Theft, so were making a balances decision to try to figure out how do i minimize the negative impact of the cuts im going to take. Depending on how you measure it every revenue officer, criminal investigateor produces somewhere between 100,000 a year each. So we know when we ineffect leave money on the table, you can talk to any agent and theyll tell you we know its not a question of guessing. When we look at returns we start with the returns that have the biggest problems and so, were leaving on the table, tax cuts for tax cheats, there are people who
Current funding is between 2007 and 2008 levels. Additionally, my amendment still allows for more than 10. 5 billion to go to the i. R. S. In this time where we have over 17 trillion in debt, and a deficit this year exceeding 50 billion, this is a modest reduction at best. Again, this amendment only makes a 3 reduction to bring the appropriations in line with the 2007 appropriations. More directly than financial consideration or condition of the country is the fact that this agency has shown contempt for the american taxpayer. It has ignored congress and ignored subpoenas. It has stonewalled and destroyed evidence, it has lied, it has abused its powers and targeted honest americans for exercising their political beliefs. The list of scandals and examples of mismanagement within the i. R. S. Seems to grow every day. This agency, which aggressively pursues american citizens it believes deserves it, must understand that the i. R. S. Is first and foremost accountable to the American People